The Internet has allowed for the growth of many systems and methods for delivering information to different users of the inter-connected devices and computers. One form of data delivery that has seen tremendous growth is the delivery of user requested information from a variety of sources. This user requested information can be delivered via email or a browser based system.
In user requested information delivery systems referred to as ezines, content may be provided to the user via email. The provided email may contain a variety of formatting controls, such as HTML code, that provide a formatted document that gives the user subscribing to the ezine service the content in a formatted manner that is easy to read and analogous to print media. Such formatting can also allow for the delivery of a variety of marketing and advertising content which depend on the information rich nature the Internet and the high interactivity of these systems to provide additional and novel functions that ultimately generate the revenues that support the service the subscriber receives.
A significant disadvantage of current email delivered ezines is that the user has only approximate control over the content delivered. The content delivered may not be to the user's interests. Also, the user has little control over the size of the content. While a variety of methods may be used to control the allowable size of content delivered to a subscriber, such methods are typically implemented by aspects of the software and systems the subscriber uses, as opposed to the content publisher, potentially conflicting with the ability to provide the entire desired content.
Content publishers may conform the size of their content to allow for efficient delivery and to be generally suitable to user requirements; nonetheless, the ezine publisher still controls the ezine with respect to size. Additional aspects of the ezine remain within the publisher's control and outside the control of the subscriber. Such control would include the nature and origin of the content provided irrespective of any advertising content. Regardless of the tailoring of editorial content and limitations of subject matter content, the content is still ultimately outside of the direct control of the ezine subscriber, except as a matter of termination of the ezine subscription. Also, no available service provides a large digital media content work, such a book, within the limitations of email and similar services, that provides for user control of the publication that are responsive to the user's varying content delivery requirements and desires.